| / English Dictionary |
SCORCHED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having everything destroyed so nothing is left salvageable by an enemy
Example:
Sherman's scorched earth policy
Classified under:
Similar:
destroyed (spoiled or ruined or demolished)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Dried out by heat or excessive exposure to sunlight
Example:
sunbaked salt flats
Synonyms:
adust; baked; parched; scorched; sunbaked
Classified under:
Similar:
dry (free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb scorch
Context examples:
"Ladies," said he, turning to his family, "Miss Temple, teachers, and children, you all see this girl?" Of course they did; for I felt their eyes directed like burning-glasses against my scorched skin.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And when the sun was up I was scorched, and because I had no root I withered away.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
A hasty drawing back always resulted, accompanied by angry yelps and frightened snarls when a well-aimed brand struck and scorched a too daring animal.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I had forgot the pasty, and it will be as scorched as Judas Iscariot!
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was like severing heart strings, when he was with Ruth, to stand up and go; and he scorched through the dark streets so as to get home to his books at the least possible expense of time.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Never! Well, I have a bad trick of standing before the fire, and so I burn my frocks, and I scorched this one, and though it's nicely mended, it shows, and Meg told me to keep still so no one would see it.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It was now the sweetest hour of the twenty-four:—"Day its fervid fires had wasted," and dew fell cool on panting plain and scorched summit.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
From every side the cries arose, and the dogs betrayed their fear by huddling together and so close to the fire that their hair was scorched by the heat.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
For forty yards round the portal the ground was black with writhing, screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled themselves down again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched, with fire bursting from their tattered clothing.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In similar manner he collected lists of strong phrases, the phrases of living language, phrases that bit like acid and scorched like flame, or that glowed and were mellow and luscious in the midst of the arid desert of common speech.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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